DOT to add trees, reduce speed on Kerr Avenue

Sunday

Jul 20, 2014 at 5:42 PM

N.C. Department of Transportation has a plan to lower the speed limit on Kerr Avenue.

By Julian MarchJulian.March@StarNewsOnline.com

After a busy section of Wilmington's Kerr Avenue is widened, the N.C. Department of Transportation has a plan to lower the speed limit.The plan to reduce the speed limit is not quite so drivers will slow down and smell the roses, but it's close. The DOT has plans to plant trees in the median on Kerr Avenue between Fairlawn Drive and Randall Parkway.Because of the trees, the 45 mph speed limit needs to be reduced to 35 mph per DOT guidelines, said Mike Kozlosky, the director of Wilmington's Metropolitan Planning Organization. The Wilmington City Council has unanimously supported the planting of the trees and the associated speed limit reduction.The DOT's budget for the project includes $138,000 for landscaping. In addition to the trees, that could also fund grass and landscaping. City staffers and the city's tree commission both recommended planting shumard oaks, live oaks and crepe myrtles in the middle of Kerr where the median is wide enough.Public reaction to the plan seems mixed."I think it will slow people down and that's what we need in this town," said Melissa Ann Siano, on the StarNews' Facebook page.Sally Mershon Reed pointed out that Wilmington has "tree city" signs posted at its entrances. "Do it," she wrote on the Facebook page. "Planted medians add beauty and help reduce the heat island effect."Chris Quinn Neal doesn't like the plan. "Wait, what genius thinks this is a good idea?" Neal said on Facebook, questioning whether slowing traffic down will cause a bottleneck.Although the city council approved the landscaping plan, the speed has not been changed yet. Kozlosky said the city council will need to vote on a separate ordinance to ask the DOT to lower the speed limit. A small section of South Kerr Avenue between Cinema Drive to just south of the Market Street intersection is already posted with 35 mph speed limit signs. The $18 million Kerr Avenue project will widen Kerr to four lanes divided by a median between the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Patrick Avenue, just south of Randall Parkway. Sidewalks and bicycle lanes will also be added. Left-bound traffic at Kerr and Market will be rerouted away from the busy intersection.The DOT plans to award the contracts for the work in November, and construction could begin in early 2015.